Volume 8.32 | Aug 25

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STORY

Investigators showed that PADI2 is an androgen-repressed gene and is upregulated in castration-resistance prostate cancer. PADI2 expression was required for survival and cell cycle progression of prostate cancer (PCa) cells, and PADI2 promoted proliferation of PCa cells under androgen-deprived or castration conditions in vitro and in vivo. [Cancer Res]
Abstract

By using C4-2, CWR22Rv1 and LNCaP cell lines, as well as mice bearing CWR22Rv1 xenografts treated with either enzalutamide or metformin alone or in combination, researchers demonstrated that metformin is capable of reversing enzalutamide resistance and restores sensitivity of CWR22Rv1 xenografts to enzalutamide. [Cell Death Dis]
Full Article

Researchers investigated the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic activity of the total flavonoids extracted from persimmon leaves (FPL) in PC-3 cells. After treating cells with different concentration of FPL, Quercetin or Rutin for 24 hours, MTT and flow cytometry were used to measure the cytotoxicity, apoptotic rate and cell cycle arrest. [Chem Biol Interact]
Abstract | Graphical Abstract

CLINICAL RESEARCH

The efficacy of cabazitaxel in postdocetaxel patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer was confirmed. The noninferiority end point was met; C20 maintained ≥ 50% of the overall survival benefit of C25 versus mitoxantrone in TROPIC. [J Clin Oncol]
Abstract

Enzalutamide significantly reduced the risk of disease progression or death vs bicalutamide in patients age <75 and ≥75. Time to prostate-specific antigen progression was also significantly prolonged with enzalutamide vs bicalutamide in both subgroups. [J Urol]
Abstract

The Prostate Cancer Foundation announced six new Challenge Awards funded in partnership with the Movember Foundation. These multi-year awards support cross-disciplinary teams of investigators conducting pioneering research to advance treatments and cures for prostate cancer. [Prostate Cancer Foundation]
Press Release

Researchers in the NCI-designated Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center have received $13,107,956 from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) for six new grants focused on evidence-based cancer prevention services, the recruitment of an established investigator, individual investigator and early translational research and core facility support. [Baylor College of Medicine]
Press Release

The University of Michigan’s biomedical sciences graduate program announced that it will no longer require GRE scores for its Ph.D. admissions. Following a review of the available evidence and a public discussion involving the program’s faculty, staff, and trainees, the exam’s ability to predict student performance seems “weak at best” while it significantly disadvantages women, minorities, and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, writes Scott Barolo, director of the Program in Biomedical Sciences, in the announcement. [Science Careers]
Editorial

Senior female faculty at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies raise more than twice as much in National Institutes of Health funding for scientists working in their labs as their male counterparts, according to a 2016 internal report on “faculty issues” requested by leaders of the San Diego, California institution. Yet Salk leaders favored male scientists by granting them greater access to internal funds and other resources, the report implies, echoing gender discrimination lawsuits filed last month against the research center. [ScienceInsider]
Editorial

Over the past two years, more than 150 German libraries, universities, and research institutes have formed a united front trying to force academic publishers into a new way of doing business. Instead of buying subscriptions to specific journals, consortium members want to pay publishers an annual lump sum that covers publication costs of all papers whose first authors are at German institutions. Those papers would be freely available around the world; meanwhile, German institutions would receive access to all the publishers’ online content. [ScienceInsider]
Editorial